Not so smart

It’s not the best story I’ve ever told, but here’s what I’ve got for today.

Haleigh found a walnut outside. We brought it in to investigate it.

Now, I’ve heard that walnut juice can stain, so I wisely took the precaution of wearing an apron so my clothes wouldn’t get yucky and look bad for tonight’s home visits. I scored the soft shell with a knife and let the children pull it off. They got most of it, and then I worked on getting the rest so we could see the nut inside. The whole investigating process took a good fifteen minutes or so, and was quite educational. We learned that the black spot smelled yucky, the inside smells like camping, and that the clear juice that’s inside permanently stains your hands. Oops.

At home visits I had to explain that my hands actually were clean, they just looked like they were dirty.

Oh, and if you need anymore walnuts for investigation, we have about five buckets of them off our neighbor’s tree. Tara collects them and calls them her babies. And feeds them grass. And sometimes a little sand. And waters them.

Brad is on to something here … rub the rest of your body with the nut juice & you’ll have a hollywood tan for all to admire & it’s all natural! Bottle the stuff & you could make millions … “Going brown while staying green.”

These are black walnuts. They are very good but it’s a pain to get to the nut itself. It is best to lay them out in a sunny spot and let the outer hull dry. It will come off much easier. The hulls were used by the American Indians and the early settlers as a natural dye. Use a hammer to crack the nut inside. It is a very hard shell. Like I said a real pain! But many think it is worth it.